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Alaric would be staying with Dr Abbey; that hadn’t changed He was our best technician If it became necessary for the lab to move while ere still on the road, he’d be too useful for Dr Abbey to just ditch, and he’d be able to keep the rest of us aware of its location Besides, I didn’t trust him in the field when his sister’s safety was on the line He was likely to do soet himself hurt, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to force ht back to Dr Abbey and her advanced medical facilities Especially since by "advanced," I rid If one of us got ie and Mahir,the wilds of Oregon for the dubious safety of Seattle Maggie’s plan was to go back on the grid as soon as possible, reclai her position as heir to the Garcia fa Mahir as her latest boy toy "People like their circuses when the news gets bad," she’d said, a perverse twinkle in her eyes "I’ to tell them a story so flashy they won’t even think to ask where I’ve been" Alaric wasn’t thrilled about the "boy toy" part, but it was solid They would use her celebrity as a cover while they round, and located the man everyone called "the Monkey" He could cook new IDs for h to let us disappear forever, if things caie ca our departure I was clearing hts, preferring the illusory privacy of its fa arrangee wasn’t secure, but the van was, once the doors were locked
She knocked once on the open rear door, and then just stood there, waiting
I looked up "Yeah?"
"You knoe’re not getting me an ID from the Monkey, don’t you?" Her expression was a nation and resolve She looked like a heroine from one of the horror movies she loved so much, and in that moment, I really understood what Dave--one of thestarted--and Alaric saw in her She was beautiful
And she was right "Yeah, I do" I put down the toolbox I was holding,to take a seat on the bumper "You can’t disappear"
"If it weren’t for the fact thatwith round for this long" Maggie touched the skin above her collarbone Her parents had implanted a subdermal bio-tracker beneath the bone when she was still in diapers It didn’t coe years before she discovered journalis her the truth about that--but it enabled thee that their only child was still alive
"We could have it re fro theie sat down next to me "It’s too risky"
I looked at her levelly "It’s too risky, and you don’t really want to disappear, do you?"
"It’s not that! It’s just… it’s…" She took a breath, stopping herself before she could go any further Finally, reluctantly, she nodded "You’re right I don’t want to disappear I don’t want to do that to s I miss my Fictionals They have to be so worried I’ve never done this to them before, not once Alaric and I talked about this He’s not happy, but… it’s what has to happen"
Tell her you understand, said George
"I understand," I said, and even if I had to be proiven up a lot to stay with us this long, more than any of my team members except for maybe Mahir Alaric’s family would have been in Florida no matter where he worked Becks hadn’t spoken to her faia that way; both of the what got left behind in the process But Maggie wasn’t like that Maggie was different
Maggie was looking atherself to believe I was really saying the words she was hearing "I know I’y person I used to be h that I didn’t sees that were ai people very often since she died I still leaned over and puther a brief squeeze The situation seemed to call for it
"Really?" she whispered
"Really Your parents would tear down the world trying to find you if you stayed gone too long That’s cool That’s sort of awesome, if you think about it Becks’s family hates her Alaric’s faland, and they probably think he’s insane And the Masons…" I stopped, the sentence co to a halt